Last November 15, in the frame of the tragic attacks carried out in Paris, which resulted in the death of 129 people, the historian Jordi Callado, author of the blog Mirando a Oriente (Looking towards the East), published this interesting article, in which he invites the readers to think about the West reaction to the attacks. Specifically, he invites readers to reconsider which is the reason that explains this attacks against France leading to a world wide massive reaction, while similar incidents in Africa or Asia barely make the headlines. His conclusion: we are being racist.
“Why? You might ask yourselves. The answer is simple. Nobody is talking about Friday’s attack in Beirut, Lebanon, which caused the death of 43 people and 239 injured (according to the news agency EFE). No one has shown its solidarity with the Lebanese people. None of those sharing the French flag in his Facebook account has tried to represent Lebanon’s flag. But that’s not the worst thing. I don’t see any one reacting against the waves of attacks that strike different countries in the world, not only the Islamic ones (such as the massacre of Buddhist extremists in Myanmar, where murders rise up to 18,000). Nobody is denouncing on the net the Bashar al-Assad’s massacre against the civil population, who is even employing chemical weapon, as it happened in Guta in 2013 (1,400 people killed). I don’t see any kind of solidarity with other civilizations when they are victims of the horror and terror. The reason is clear: RACISM”.
According to this author, Europe and the United States’ answer to this terrorist attack shows the subordination of every culture to the West civilization, which takes shape in form of a selective empathy towards Western victims, in contrast with the insensibility with which these peoples receive other news which are equally as tragic.
Click here to read the article (in Spanish).
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